obsidian
29-08-02, 09:06 PM
Pro-Pakistan hackers deface Centre’s venture capital site
STANLEY THEODORE
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD, Aug. 24. — Pro-Pakistan hackers are targeting Indian sites like never before as the animosity over Kashmir is assuming unprecedented proportions in cyberspace. The worrisome part is that the hackers have begun to collaborate with international groups to bring down Indian sites, while Indian companies continue to agonise over the steep security costs. At least 275 defacements have been recorded this year, against 133 in 2000 and 45 in 1999.
The latest attack came this evening from the Pakistan Cyber Warriors (PCW) on Union information technology ministry’s venture capital site, http://venturefundindia.mit.gov.in.
The defacement read – “Stop Atrocities in Kashmir! You think you can be all macho by killing defenceless children and raping virtuous women? You are not men…the Indian Army is the reincarnation of the devil himself”. The attack comes after the 21 August defacement of Maharashtra’s public works departments by the same group. There they left abusive messages for the site administrators.
“One thing to note is whenever some group defaces a site, they leave it in a vulnerable state, so that another group can easily deface it again. Usually these aren’t mirrored at any of the main defacement mirrors like alldas.de or safemode.org. If you include these, the number is higher,” said Mr K Srijith of srijith.net. He does a painstaking job of updating Indian defaced sites. Of the major Indian sites brought down this year are AIIMS, Andhra Pradesh’s National Informatics Centre, Tamil Nadu government, Kolkata’s National Information Technology Promotional Units, Economic Research & Market Intelligence Unit (HQ), 123india.com, rediff.com, VSNL Ernakulam, South Gujarat University, University Grants Commission, Indian Institute of Science, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Weather Resource System for India and Indian Oil Corporation Gujarat Refinery.
The hackers have announced that they would step up their attacks. Two well-known Pakistani hacking groups – SiliverLords and PCW (each comprising three hackers)— in an e-mail exchange with this correspondent said their aim is to wreak vengeance on India over Kashmir. And they would take help from other groups to reach their goal.
On international collaboration, SilverLords said: “There are many (collaborators)”. SilverLords has been very active recently. PCW said: “Yes, most hackers from other countries support our cause and are willing to lend a helping hand. However, we’ve never felt the need for collaboration to get into Indian machines (we are fairly self sufficient)... All of them are buddy groups with the desire and the capability to come to our help when and if we needed it”.
Interestingly, both denied working for the ISI or at ISI’s behest. PCW said the ISI doesn’t understand hacking. “We wish that we could work for the Pakistan ISI or at their behest! And I wish I had any type of contact with them cause ISI is cool, but alas! ISI does not really dig these kind of activities”. Does SilverLords brief the ISI about its activities? “We do what we want,” the group said.
Are they driven by revenge motive or something else? SilverLords said: “We hack just to support the freedom movements”. PCW’s response: “YES, it IS vengeance and its also everything else. When we hack into an Indian machine we look for maximum destruction in order to quench our eternal hate for what they have done to the people of Jammu and Kashmir” While SilverLords selects their targets randomly, PCW said: “We look for sites with good traffic. Usually we hit anything that catches our eye.” On its future targets, PCW said: “All of us have really big minds, so we have a *LOT* of sites in them. But if we tell you, their admins (site administrators) would get fired or die of heart attack!” Most victims don’t report to police. CareerCommunity.com, a Hyderabad-based professional management portal that claimed to be the largest subscription site in India, was hacked recently by SilverLords. Mr T Murlidharan said: “The attack did not warrant a strong reaction. We very quickly restored our site after the hacking and our databases were not damaged. It was like a pencil being stolen from your home”.
He said hacking is a reality that companies have begun to face. The issue is compounded by the expensive security solutions. “It’s a trade off on whether one wants a security system for around Rs 20 lakh or have a strong back-end team that monitors the site every second minute. Many choose the second option”. SilverLords was asked whether the spate of hacking has made Indian and Pakistani sites upgrade their security. It used unprintable language to describe how vulnerable the sites are in both countries.
What will this cyber jihad lead to? “I predict that India will be overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of breakin’s and she will have to resort to negotiations, lying and other back stabbing procedures we are so used to seeing,” said PCW. On the prospect of India’s retaliation on Pakistani sites, it said: “We are aware that India wants to retaliate but what they lack is motive”. Mr Srijith said there is only one pro-Indian hacking group, H2O or Hindustan Hackers Association. It targets Pakistan sites. “I don’t keep a tab of the anti-Pakistan attacks since they’re so less,” he said.
STANLEY THEODORE
STATESMAN NEWS SERVICE
HYDERABAD, Aug. 24. — Pro-Pakistan hackers are targeting Indian sites like never before as the animosity over Kashmir is assuming unprecedented proportions in cyberspace. The worrisome part is that the hackers have begun to collaborate with international groups to bring down Indian sites, while Indian companies continue to agonise over the steep security costs. At least 275 defacements have been recorded this year, against 133 in 2000 and 45 in 1999.
The latest attack came this evening from the Pakistan Cyber Warriors (PCW) on Union information technology ministry’s venture capital site, http://venturefundindia.mit.gov.in.
The defacement read – “Stop Atrocities in Kashmir! You think you can be all macho by killing defenceless children and raping virtuous women? You are not men…the Indian Army is the reincarnation of the devil himself”. The attack comes after the 21 August defacement of Maharashtra’s public works departments by the same group. There they left abusive messages for the site administrators.
“One thing to note is whenever some group defaces a site, they leave it in a vulnerable state, so that another group can easily deface it again. Usually these aren’t mirrored at any of the main defacement mirrors like alldas.de or safemode.org. If you include these, the number is higher,” said Mr K Srijith of srijith.net. He does a painstaking job of updating Indian defaced sites. Of the major Indian sites brought down this year are AIIMS, Andhra Pradesh’s National Informatics Centre, Tamil Nadu government, Kolkata’s National Information Technology Promotional Units, Economic Research & Market Intelligence Unit (HQ), 123india.com, rediff.com, VSNL Ernakulam, South Gujarat University, University Grants Commission, Indian Institute of Science, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Weather Resource System for India and Indian Oil Corporation Gujarat Refinery.
The hackers have announced that they would step up their attacks. Two well-known Pakistani hacking groups – SiliverLords and PCW (each comprising three hackers)— in an e-mail exchange with this correspondent said their aim is to wreak vengeance on India over Kashmir. And they would take help from other groups to reach their goal.
On international collaboration, SilverLords said: “There are many (collaborators)”. SilverLords has been very active recently. PCW said: “Yes, most hackers from other countries support our cause and are willing to lend a helping hand. However, we’ve never felt the need for collaboration to get into Indian machines (we are fairly self sufficient)... All of them are buddy groups with the desire and the capability to come to our help when and if we needed it”.
Interestingly, both denied working for the ISI or at ISI’s behest. PCW said the ISI doesn’t understand hacking. “We wish that we could work for the Pakistan ISI or at their behest! And I wish I had any type of contact with them cause ISI is cool, but alas! ISI does not really dig these kind of activities”. Does SilverLords brief the ISI about its activities? “We do what we want,” the group said.
Are they driven by revenge motive or something else? SilverLords said: “We hack just to support the freedom movements”. PCW’s response: “YES, it IS vengeance and its also everything else. When we hack into an Indian machine we look for maximum destruction in order to quench our eternal hate for what they have done to the people of Jammu and Kashmir” While SilverLords selects their targets randomly, PCW said: “We look for sites with good traffic. Usually we hit anything that catches our eye.” On its future targets, PCW said: “All of us have really big minds, so we have a *LOT* of sites in them. But if we tell you, their admins (site administrators) would get fired or die of heart attack!” Most victims don’t report to police. CareerCommunity.com, a Hyderabad-based professional management portal that claimed to be the largest subscription site in India, was hacked recently by SilverLords. Mr T Murlidharan said: “The attack did not warrant a strong reaction. We very quickly restored our site after the hacking and our databases were not damaged. It was like a pencil being stolen from your home”.
He said hacking is a reality that companies have begun to face. The issue is compounded by the expensive security solutions. “It’s a trade off on whether one wants a security system for around Rs 20 lakh or have a strong back-end team that monitors the site every second minute. Many choose the second option”. SilverLords was asked whether the spate of hacking has made Indian and Pakistani sites upgrade their security. It used unprintable language to describe how vulnerable the sites are in both countries.
What will this cyber jihad lead to? “I predict that India will be overwhelmed by the tremendous amount of breakin’s and she will have to resort to negotiations, lying and other back stabbing procedures we are so used to seeing,” said PCW. On the prospect of India’s retaliation on Pakistani sites, it said: “We are aware that India wants to retaliate but what they lack is motive”. Mr Srijith said there is only one pro-Indian hacking group, H2O or Hindustan Hackers Association. It targets Pakistan sites. “I don’t keep a tab of the anti-Pakistan attacks since they’re so less,” he said.